Turns out spending all day searching Facebook and YouTube may not be such a waste of time, according to a UCLA study.
The study, which worked with 24 neurologically normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 78, found Internet use stimulates neural activity and may enhance brain function in older adults.
"Basically, we wanted to see what the brain looked like the first time it searched online," said Gary Small, professor of clinical psychiatry at UCLA. "We found that, compared to people that have searched online before, there was a lot less activity, so searching online really increased brain activity."
The volunteers underwent an initial functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, which records brain activity by measuring the blood flow during cognitive tasks.
Over a two week period, after the initial scan, participants were instructed to use the Internet for one hour a day for a total of seven days.
After this period of Internet use, participants underwent another fMRI scan which showed additional activity in important areas of the brain.
"These Internet naive people practiced for a week, and there was a big difference because they were able to train their brains in a matter of a week," Small said. "It wasn't randomly throughout the brain, but in the key memory centers that control memory and decision making."
Marie Wooten, professor of cell and molecular bioscience, said while the study is interesting, it doesn't offer much new information.
"It is pretty widely recognized that doing complex tasks or even learning a new task stimulates your brain to actually think better and work better," Wooten said. "It's been pretty widely known for the last couple of years that contrary to what we originally thought, which is that the number of neurons you are born with is the number you die with, we now realize that the brain is 'plastic' and exhibits characteristics of plasticity."
Wooten said this ability to be molded means the brain can be shaped by different experiences.
As the brain ages, Wooten said the neurons can be stimulated to take on or exhibit a greater architecture, which means the brain can transfer, store, retrieve and communicate information faster and more efficiently.
Wooten said she thinks it is too soon to tell what this means for the younger generation that has grown with the Internet as a daily part of their lives.
"I think our brains are getting rewired from all the extra stimulation we get from things like computers, the Internet and word processing programs," Wooten said.
Wooten said the Internet is changing the way the brain learns information, and that it's moving from traditional visual, auditory and hands-on learning to a combination of all three.
In order to maintain and improve brain function, Wooten suggested doing complex word or math puzzles or using the Internet constructively.
"Doing those kinds of things really stimulates your brain to have this very complex architecture on your neurons, which helps you think better," Wooten said. "That saying 'Use it or lose it' is true."
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